Despite Adversity, Tech Baseball Wins

Jay Langley - Special to KLBK.com (Lubbock, TX) - Before Texas Tech faced New Mexico State Wednesday night, the crowd at Dan Law Field observed a moment of silence for L.D. Hays, the father of Texas Tech Head Coach Larry Hays, who passed away Tuesday night. Once the game started there was no silencing the Tech bats as the Raiders (19-10) defeated the Aggies 10-3. "Were having to learn," Hays said. "Were an inexperienced bunch and were having to learn. When your top guys are struggling that makes it tough on everybody. When they get big hits it kind of helps everybody get going." With the score tied at 2 in the fifth inning, Roger Kieschnick came up with runners on second and third base. At that point in the game Hays decided to give Kieschnick the green light to swing after NMSU pitcher Noah Garza fell behind in the count 3-0. "We needed something to happen tonight," Hays said. "When you do it and it doesnt work its horrible but it worked out pretty good tonight." Kieschnick took his coaches vote of confidence and ripped the 3-0 pitch into the right field gap plating teammates Kyle Martin and James Leverton to give Tech the 4-2 lead. Kieschnick said he was happy because the at-bat was his first of the season in which he was given the green light on 3-0. "He does what every pitcher does on 3-0 and thats try to throw it right down the middle for a strike and I put a pretty good swing on it," Kieschnick said. Techs offense had another explosion in the seventh inning powered by a 2 RBI double by catcher Matt Smith to take a 9-2 lead into the eighth. "We stayed back in the zone and concentrated on seeing it," Smith said of the Tech offense. "A lot of guys had good at-bats tonight. If we can keep doing that and play as well as we did we shouldnt have any problems." After NMSU (13-16) took an early lead in the top of the first off of Tech pitcher Josh Scofield, five Tech pitchers allowed just two runs over the last eight innings. Junior Chris Ortmeier pitched two scoreless innings in his first appearance of the season. "When the opportunity arises you just step up and do what you can and give it your best," Ortmeier said. "Thats what we tried to do tonight as a team." Ortmeier said despite the recent death of Hays father, there was no sense among the team of trying to win one for the coach. "Winning is something we try to do every time we come on the ball field," he said. "We know that is a tough loss for coach. We just tried to approach the ball game the same we would any other time."